The gold mining ghost town of Bodie (now a state historic park) is an interesting place to visit just north of Mono Lake and Lee Vining in central CA. Within one year (1878) this town grew from 20 to 10,000 miners, gamblers, and other entrepreneurs searching for wealth. Today visitors can wander through the deserted streets and peer into old houses and buildings, many of which were abandoned in haste when the last train left town.